Sheik Charkawi’s bid to dump Labor to field ‘teal-like’ campaign-backed federal candidates

A Muslim teal-like campaign to oust the ALP is fielding calls for candidates as Senator Fatima Payman’s suspension exacerbated a widening rift between the party and the Islamic community.

Sheik Wesam Charkawi is spearheading the campaign.

A Muslim teal-style campaign to oust the ALP in Sydney and Melbourne is seeking candidates as Anthony Albanese’s suspension of Fatima Payman from the Labor caucus exacerbates a rift between the party and the ­Islamic community.

The suspension of the senator for crossing the floor to vote with the Greens on Palestine statehood, and her warning that she’d do it again, has alienated Labor from its historically loyal Muslim voter base, which is mobilising to make that clear at the next election.

The Muslim Vote – a formal campaign bidding to oust Labor incumbents in seats with high Muslim populations – has opened applications for prospective candidates, including in the electorates of Education Minister Jason Clare and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.

Any candidates running as part of the Muslim Vote platform are likely to be campaign-affiliated independents, backed with resources, volunteers and funding, similar to Climate 200’s support of independent teal candidates, albeit not to the same extent.

The Australian revealed in April that Labor powerbrokers feared abandonment by Muslim voters across southwest Sydney and inner-city Melbourne over its Gaza war stance and, in June, how the campaign was spearheaded by Islamic leader Sheik Wesam Charkawi.

On Sunday, Sheik Charkawi published a “candidate call out”, encouraging people to put themselves forward to run with the Muslim Vote’s backing. “Have you thought about truly speaking for your community? Now is the time,” he wrote.

Sheikh Charkawi is calling for candidates as part of the campaign. Picture: Britta Campion

The sheik has also started expanding the campaign’s reach and pool of canvassers. The group is also now accepting ­donations, which will go toward “local and national campaigns, mobilisation, rallies, event ­material, and direct lobbying”.

Although its vocal pro-Palestine stance will be a campaign tenet, it will also run on housing, the cost of living, and facilities that cater to the community, looking long-term to create “grassroots political infrastructure”. It also provides a data resource of the Muslim population in its target electorates, and rates the Labor incumbent on their Palestine voting record.

Target seats include Mr Burke’s Watson – who the campaign has ranked as “weak” on its voting scorecard – Mr Clare’s Blaxland, who it says has “strong solidarity with Israel”, and Labor-held Wills and Lalor in Melbourne.

Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gemel Kheir said his organisation – which is not associated with the campaign – and his community offered ­“unfettered support” for Senator Payman.

Senator Fatima Payman. Picture: Martin Ollman

“It’s nothing to do with Islam anymore, it’s unfair to say it’s just Muslims, it’s a vast majority who’ve had enough and that will be echoed resoundingly (at the election),” he said.

Mr Kheir said it would be naive to think it would be driven by any one campaign and was in fact the community itself ­“maturing”. “It is not just any one campaign that will be a thorn (to the major parties), this (Senator Paymen’s crossing the floor) is a watershed moment,” he said.

He said the community, while not homogenous, would ­“express its electoral voice”.

“We’re not different from any other community, we’re maturing to understand that the system works better for us when we involve ourselves within it,” he said. “I’m not begrudging anyone (of different faiths, ethnicities) for advocating for their community.”

The Prime Minister on Monday said no individual was “bigger than the team” and that the resolution the senator supported did “nothing to advance the peace process”.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 29 of the 151 federal electorates have 5 per cent or more people of the ­Islamic faith – 27 of those 29 seats are held by Labor.

Tony Burke, left, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pictured the LMA’s Lakemba Mosque in 2019. Picture: AAP

Of those 29, 16 are held by Labor on margins of 10 per cent or more, and at the previous election the party suffered primary vote swings against it of up to 18.5 per cent.

A separate group called Muslim Votes Matters has launched a similar campaign targeting Labor-held seats with a “Gaza scorecard”.

It is also recruiting volunteers, but has stopped short of calling for candidates. On Sunday, it held its Victoria launch at the Melbourne Grand Mosque.

Sheik Charkawi registered the Muslim Vote’s website ­domain in December – under IPBL College, an incorporated association he runs – and the list of backing organisations has not been updated, although it said it was supported by groups that “enjoy the support of hundreds of thousands of Muslims”.

Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun at an October 8 rally in Lakemba.

Those organisations, and the campaign’s link – if any – to a seemingly UK-based sister organisation remains unclear.

It shares a near-identical website, and content and brand identity, to its British equivalent – also called the Muslim Vote and is endorsing pro-Palestine candidates for that country’s general election. It was co-established by Muhammad Jalal, who has expressed his support for the Australian campaign

Mr Jalal, a politics lecturer, crunched the numbers for the UK Muslim Vote campaign and was the leader of the British chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir between 2000 and 2005, but has had nothing to do with that group since 2008 and does not share some of its recent views.

Sheik Charkawi is not part of Hizb ut-Tahrir, and The Australian is in no way suggesting he is.

However, Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun, a Hizb ut-Tahrir backer, who was filmed on October 8 saying he was “elated” – he has said he had been misquoted – is involved in the campaign.

Whether formally or as a supporter, Sheik Dadoun, at the campaign’s December establishment encouraged volunteers to get involved.

“Reach out if you’re interested (in joining),” he said.

The Muslim Vote campaign was contacted for comment.